Diamond going out to shock Saracens
THE odds will be stacked against Sale Sharks when they travel to unbeaten Premiership high-flyers Saracens today – but that’s not stopping Steve Diamond’s men from planning an upset.
Sarries are yet to taste defeat this season, drawing only once – against Sale – in the Premiership Rugby Cup during a 17-game unbeaten streak dating back to April.
Sale have never beaten Saracens in their new home at Allianz Park and have failed to register an away win over the Londoners since 2005.
But that hasn’t prevented Sale’s director of rugby Diamond from believing his side could spark a major upset, with a whole host of Saracens first-team stars away on international duty.
“Saracens have got a brilliant infrastructure now,” explained Diamond.
“They’re trained to weather storms because they’ve got a few people playing in internationals.”
Diamond was handed a major boost last week with the return of England international Denny Solomona and World Rugby Player of the Year nominee Faf de Klerk.
Springboks star De Klerk hasn’t featured for the Sharks in the Premiership this season and his return will provide a welcome source of inspiration to a side that have lost their last five league away games. The South African scrum-half admitted this week he’s been chomping at the bit to get back involved on the pitch and guide Sale up the table after an underwhelming start to the season. The Sharks have been busy adding more recruits to their ranks with the additions of South African international brothers Robert and JeanLuc du Preez to Carrington. It means today they will field a South African half-back partnership for the first time in the club’s history with De Klerk and Du Preez linking up. Diamond is hopeful their signatures can provide crucial strengthin-depth with a busy block of winter fixtures rapidly approaching. “Rob’s a class player. He comes with a lot of experience and he’s got a lot to play for, playing with Faf, and hopefully, him and Rohan Janse van Rensburg, over the next few weeks, will promote him to the South African selectors in a World Cup year,” said Diamond. “We’re looking forward to his brother (Jean-Luc) joining us and, hopefully, we can play as well as we can do and push for a result.” Steve Diamond on Robert du Preez